Racialized Equity Labor, University Appropriation and Student ResistanceUniversity of California-Merced

We coin the term "racialized equity labor" to describe the often uncompensated efforts of people of color to address systematic racism and racial marginalization within organizations. Using a year-long ethnographic and interview study of a majority-minority public university, we focus spec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social problems (Berkeley, Calif.) Calif.), 2020-05, Vol.67 (2), p.286
Main Authors: Lerma, Veronica, Hamilton, Laura T, Nielsen, Kelly
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activism
Appropriation
Blocking
Campuses
College faculty
College students
Colleges & universities
Equity
Ethnography
Inequality
Introspection
Labor
Leadership
Marginality
Minority & ethnic groups
Public image
Racialization
Racism
Work organization
Workplace diversity
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Summary:We coin the term "racialized equity labor" to describe the often uncompensated efforts of people of color to address systematic racism and racial marginalization within organizations. Using a year-long ethnographic and interview study of a majority-minority public university, we focus specifically on the racialized equity labor of college students who, like many faculty and staff of color, often labor to make their campuses comfortable and functional for historically underrepresented populations. We identify a cycle of racialized labor appropriation whereby: 1) people of color identify problems in the racial environment of their organizations and work to solve them; 2) leadership responds by blocking efforts and/or denying issues; 3) external and/or internal pressures force introspection and push leaders to resolve an organizational threat (e.g., to the university's public image of diversity); and finally, 4) leadership appropriates racialized equity labor, and in doing so converts it into a diluted diversity initiative. Those engaged in racialized equity labor may resist appropriation, but the cycle takes a toll on activists. The ways in which organizations respond to racialized equity labor offers insight into the reproduction of racial inequities, despite the hard work of people of color to create meaningful racial change.
ISSN:0037-7791
1533-8533
DOI:10.1093/socpro/spz011